Craig Read

Back in the real world. ...... Arnie is solving the Dumbocrud's Mexifornication mess. The Governator has outlined a way to tackle California's budget deficit that doesn't involve tax hikes. Arnie is pushing a plan to roll California's past debt and ongoing budget deficit into a $15 billion bond restructuring that voters would be asked to approve on the March 2 ballot. It sure beats raising taxes that would retard the economy. Most important, Governator wants to combine the borrowing measure with much needed structural reform: a constitutional cap on spending and the creation of a budget reserve for surplus revenues to cushion future economic downturns, pay off debt or lower taxes. What the new administration has in mind is something along the lines of Colorado's successful taxpayers' bill of rights, which limits state spending increases to population growth and the rate of inflation. While spending grew by more than 40% in California under Davis, Colorado's spending has been kept in check. And notwithstanding protestations from tax-happy Denver Post editorial writers, polls show that the 11-year old measure has enjoyed widespread support among the Colorado citizenry. Would that Toronto, and Canada follow such prudence. The Provincial Tories here broke their own taxpayer law in Oct 2002 by raising taxes and now Howdy Doody will follow suit. Nary a spending reform in sight, nor any relief for taxpayers.

Good post. Was Jesus real ? Did he live ? If so why no proof of his existence ? Is he a Christian invention akin to Roman and Greek idealism of their gods as men ? Was he the world's first marxist and communist ? Is Christianity not fractured because Christ and the 1000 years of biblical writing to form the bible are so contradictory and at times incomprehensible? Was Christ not a nationalist looking to invert his world in which the poor would control society ? Is this not the lesson of Christianity - the fact that a universal truth does not exist and that debate and conjecture lead to some firm realisation of what the world is really about ? In this light is not the Church another instrument of control and power centralisation ?

Hey sweetheart, France and Germany and Russia support rogue regimes. I have another post in the International section covering this. BTW Canada made VERY good money selling arms and munitions to the Middle East so before you state your patent anti-american nonsense, take note that the Canadians are in the game of arms sales too. The post refers to free riding. Canada free rides off the US and as Morgan says, lies basically about the state of its fantasy surplus. Over taxing people, abusing your military, and running up unfunded liabilities while free riding off the US is nothing to be proud of.

The nonsensical nature of the liberal - LIEberal- argument never ceases to amuse and amaze. The Bush doctrine is rather clear - no funding of terrorist regimes, regime change when necessary and aggressive war against terror. The previous philosophy had been 'he is a son of a bitch, but he is OUR SOB', and thankfully it no longer applies. I posted that 35 countries are now free thanks to US military and foreign policy strength - in times past as well as current. This is valid. The Bush doctrine is a new US policy that seeks to eradicate terror at the source. So now we have Lie-berals stating: 1. Past policy which freed 35 nations and destroyed Communism [Rep. policy thank you] was no good. Some bad guys were supported and we don't [tears in eyes, reaching for kleenex] like that. 2. Current policy to protect against another 9-11 and depose fascist regimes that murder their own citizens is not good, since well, the UN and France don't like it and is frankly too manly for us. So how to please the Lie-berals ?? Easy - let the fascists control the world, the UN become a world government and let terrorists win the war. Then MAYBE they will be content [as long as they can still watch the BBC or CBC and Joe Millionaire].

Don't worry he can't even answer the simple question that i posed to him either. Being brain dead has little virtue. I was just reading the anti-semiticism abounding in Europe. France and Germany apparently do not want to learn from history. This is Socialist Europe. Too afraid to state the obvious, terrified to protect the Jews, ashamed to fight in the war on terror, and funding illiberal regimes across the world, including Arafat's and Iran's. Welcome to paradise.

Exactly correct. Price controls always fail. I don't understand the morality in destroying the Pharma industry, which invents drugs that keep people alive, through gov't controls, when the population around the world will suffer. Bush's Medicare bill is bad - precisely because it will grant gov't the power to further manage drug prices and profits in the pharma industry. The pharma industry thinks it has 'won' through this bill. They are being shortsighted. The bill will open up in the future new legislative opportunities to limit drug prices. As well it does not exclusively or clearly state that importation of Cdn drugs is illegal. This is a mistake [albeit done for political purposes].

Sure well Canada is a benign dictatorship at all levels: -50 % of the population votes [60 % from the voting lists but this is different than the total # who CAN vote] -35 % wins a majority gov't -MPs are powerless, power is centralised in the PM, Premier's office -Gov't is so poll centric that reforms are impossible -Taxes and absolute debt levels [including unfunded liabilities] have gone up -Socialisation of the economy is standard practice [50 % of the economy is state directed] -National jingoism permeates all gov't initiatives - this stifles debate and thought -Charter of rights and judicial activism excludes Parliament Talibanic ? In a sense yes - socialism + nationalism = fascism. Canada needs checks and balances, proportional representation and real leadership.

China offers no threat to the US. The higher its purchasing power the more it will import. It needs a stable currency and open market access to achieve this. Militarily i don't buy into the China is the US' enemy theme. This is fear mongering. East Asia is a split hegemony between the US, Japan and China. China is desperately poor overall, and militarily looks impressive on paper but compared to US technology and firepower is not a major threat. We need China's markets and its capability to produce low cost low value added products. This benefits our consumers and forces competitive restructuring. There is no business case nor moral case for tariffs - unless of course you believe that higher costs for consumers, discrimation against poor countries and hand outs ie protectionist favors for firms with political contacts is moral. Read Bhagwati - best economist and rather more lucid than the poster girl for Liberal jingoists and trade haters - Paul Krugman.

Ukraine. Belarus. Latvia. Estonia. Lithuania. South Korea. Nicaragua. Grenada. Haiti. Afghanistan. Just to name a few. You think that Western Europe would be better off fascist ? When self interest, economics and morality intersect, policy is not only compelling but necessary. You believe that the FSU citizens yearn for Communism ? Trust me they do not. Georgians want a dictator do they ? No - and this is why US troops are in Georgia. Do the Georgians hate the US? - no, they view the Americans rightly as the guardians of their freedom. And how many nations look to Canada for their freedom, their ideals, their visions and their hope ?......How about NONE.

In the US Gov't spends 6.5 % of GDP on Health Care. In Canada it is the same. In the US the private sector spends 7 % of GDP on health care, in Canada it is 3 %. In neither country is health care organised properly. There are serious flaws in both models: 1. It is not consumer oriented. Innovation, service and price decreases ONLY occurs in a consumer centric system. 2. In Ont. health will eat up 50 % ! of the budget by 2020. In the US with the new Medicare bill health costs will increase to 20 % of GDP by 2020. This is unsustainable as is bad or worse, unprofessional help and timely help. for insance 8th Ont hospital with outbreak problem Look at the SARS fiasco - Communist China and Socialist Toronto are the only areas to suffer - read the SARS inquiry - the system is not built nor managed properly. 3. Lack of resources. In price controlled systems [which the US will have in drugs now], innovation is stifled, costs are not covered and R&D fails. In Canada wage and price controls mean underpaid doctors, nurses and specialists. Result ? Soviet medicine with shortages, lines and lack of technology. 4. Law. It is too easy to sue and get money. Tort reform is needed for both systems. Health Care is in need of a reformation. You can have universal access but a myriad amount of avenues of delivery. Consumer choice is key. Ms. Herzlinger, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is the author of the forthcoming "Consumer-Driven Healthcare," to be published next year by Josey-Bass.

Yes right, but remember - tax cuts are bad !! they don't work !!! the poor, the old, the suffering, oh my, tears well up, hearts are broken, the world will end!!! High taxes, more gov't control, more regulations and more monopolies will make us all wealthier. We don't need competition and innovation, that is so 18th century. What Bushie must do is CUT spending drastically, remove tariff barriers and stop bashing China. The Medicaid bill is an outrage of greater spending.

The current rate of qualified immigrants is 25 %. Ie. Only one-quarter have job skills we need now. The rest are largely on Family plans. They access almost immediately the health care system and after a period of time - usually 12-24 months - the welfare system. The sponsors are supposed to pay their way for 3 years - but this rarely happens. In Toronto it is not uncommon for Somalian taxi drivers to have sponsored 5-10 people on the extended family plan. The immigration system costs Toronto about $4 billion per year paid by local and provincial govt's. In other words Ottawa's porous and pathetic policy is paid by other levels of gov't with no citizen say in who gets to come to Toronto and why. And of course you can demand social services to use an interpretator for your language of choice - 26 langugages are supported by social services by law here in Toronto. Makes sense to me.

You don't really grasp history or politics or bother to read posts. The US has freed 35 nations in the past 50 years. How many did Russia, Islamo-Fascism, or Communism 'liberate' ? Georgia currently proves that a non-Western Central Asian nation WANTS more freedom, more capital, higher living standards and honesty in public offices. I know plenty of Iraqi's and Iranians and they want FREEDOM not mullahs and chanting fascists. The US is their best and only hope for a reconstruction of their region, which will occur despite ardent pleas from the liberal media and other 'Useful Idiots' that the US is immoral and intemperate. It is neither - it is worried about security, access to resources and stability.

Elder good post. Homosexuality is another liberal misconception - especially the rights that they will now have to place their union as a family and raise children. I would be interested in knowing what the children turn out to be - are they normal ? are they practical ? are they spiteful or disturbed ? The argument against such questions from the left is that 42 % of marriages end in divorce and that single mom's are on the rise and that broken families usually entail problem children. I would be interested in knowing if we can compare the strength of a heterosexual family unit vs a homosexually managed unit. I would assume that the homosexual unit has its own unique problems and that its children would have a very slanted almost defensive view of life.

No he is just another mindless liberal ranting against trade, innovation, job creation and individualism. As if the destiny of mankind until now has been beholden to the great benevolence of powerful government. This is certainly the Liberal interpretation of history - proven to be true of course by Fascism and Communism. The Dems have had a history of trying to thwart conservative judges - Borkin was the classic case. They always trot out the usual litany of why conservatives can't be judges - they are not 'mainstream', 'middle of the road' or 'impartial'. Considering that the vast majority of America agrees with Republican values this strikes me as rather fanciful. The liberal-dumbocruds know that extra-legal and non Congressional statutes are their best hope of creating their perfect liberal world - where nothing matters, all is relative and morality has no meaning. This world is only populated by the Harvard trained seals in Upper West Side Manhattan and some counties in California.

France and Germany believe that Europe is a plaything and toy for their ambitions to reassemble the Old Continent to rival US power. Without massive reforms good luck. Both countries believe that hypocrisy and greasy double dealing are natural. Hence, make contracts to break them. The EU Stability pact was intended to slow down fiscal impropriety. Apparently the Frogs and Teutons don't believe in keeping promises. This bodes VERY ill for Europe.

Really - what a fantastic post that is Farrius the faineant. So list your sources, your proof and the amounts involved. List some detailed analysis as i have done on who funds what regimes. Otherwise stop posting your nonsense and go away. Financing the Axis of Evil Some countries financed by France but not by the U.S., countries in which French banks are the leading lenders. 1) Total loans, in millions of dollars 2)France's contribution in percentage terms 3) France's contribution (in millions of dollars) Somalia 44 100 44 Djibouti 108 91 98 Sao Tome 9 89 8 Burkina F. 245 89 217 Madag. 768 87 670 Burundi 82 87 71 Mali 282 77 217 Benin 89 70 62 Mauritan. 179 69 124 Comoros 13 62 8 Rwanda 45 56 25 Sudan 332 53 177 Lesotho 27 52 14 St Vincent 367 51 186 Togo 130 40 52 Mozambique 646 37 239 CAR 20 35 7 Niger 49 31 15 Cuba 1,801 30 549 Laos 39 23 9 Cambodia 54 20 11 Vanuatu 122 17 21 Syria 514 16 80 Dominica 124 15 19 Source: Real Instituto Elcano

Well Dean would like to repeal the supply side taxes that have stimulate the stock market [grey hairs and middle class have been beneficiaries from this], job creationism [150k per month], and business investment and capital formation. The Dems WANT a damaged economy to ensure that a poorer America would welcome the even poorer policies of Mr. Dean and co. Bush has to reform his int'l economics and trade strategy however and reduce spending. This medicare 'reform' ie. more entitlement spend, is not smart economics but pure politics. Same with China bashing.

Well as usual you don't acknowledge the post. France and Germany are sponsoring terror and the nations in the list are NOT funded by the US. Europe imports most of its oil needs from the Middle East so your argument about Saudi oil is pointless. The Middle East and Opec hold too much sway and power in the world and their regimes need reform which is what is underway. France and Germany are doing next to nothing in the war on terror [some good work in Afgh. but that is not enough] and sponsoring illiberal regimes and terrorist elements. Listening to their tripe about morality, concern for Iraqi citizens and the need to bow down before the Useless Nations Org is a bit rich and more than a little nauseating. EU imports of Oil 2002: Europa Intelligence, MBBl Norway: 842 - outside of the EU Russia; 544 Saudi Arabia; 492 Libya; 324 Iran; 246 Iraq; 229 Nigeria; 167 Syria; 87 It is clear that Franco-German investments in oil and other industrial areas drive their foreign policy in Iraq and Iran. They are hugely dependent on Saudi oil as well. Collectively the middle east is the main source of imported oil to the EU. So much for that argument.

Mostly nonsense. What you are advocating is socialised medicine. Rationed health care. No technology, no doctors and waiting lines, and no pharma industry. Good one. This bill is bad. It is too large and too unfocused and costs too much. I don't buy that HSA and regional health competition will keep prices down.

This is puerile Riff. The EU has huge debts and unfunded liabilities like Canada and like Canada they are living off future generations. They have had monopolised cartels making money from consumers and very selective liberalisation which has raised the prices of food and textiles by an average of Euro 6.000 per family per year. ie. just another tax. As the population ages, the employment rate shrinks and fiscal laxity reigns, the entire welfare system will come under direct threat. The health systems are already being privatised in Sweden and Holland - gasp ! not even the socialists in Canada would contemplate such a thing - but they will when it is clear [as it is now] that socialised medicine is a bankrupted ideology. They can do the following: 1. Liberate their markets and labor pools and reduce spending and taxation or 2. Continue with no meaningful reforms and watch their standards of living and wealth continue to decline vis a vis the USA, as their rhetoric of their cultured superiority climbs in offset [does this include fascism, the 30 years war, Napoleon, the holocaust.....?] With only 62 % of people who should be working actually working, the EU's current model is unsustainable. Add to that - no military - political hypocrisy and corruption - and insufferable arrogance and you have the recipe for marked decline.

The UNO should be scaled down. $10 billion spent through UNO agencies per annum. 50.000 bureaucrats with a minority only hiring schedule, offices flung across the world, and nary a focused strategy in sight. A security council that ignores the reality of the threats that face the modern world, staffed by lightweights such as France, and self absorbed Russia and China. Airhead theories on global warming, cooling and regulating the Internet abound all to push forward the central premise that government control and world government domination are key to mankind's future prosperity. Significantly, 39 per cent of this amount ($4.09 billion, 0.74 per capita) was for emergency work in peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance. This underscores the failure to use the UN system to tackle the root causes of what usually become extremely costly problems. Sources: R. Culpeper, McMaster Univ. Whitepaper on UN reform or Erskine Childers with Brian Urguhart, Renewing the United Nations System, Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, Sweden, 1994, p. 143,4 Canadian link on good ideas on reform: http://www.ncrb.unac.org/unreform/selected...er/summary.html It costs Canadian taxpayers 150 million per year to play in this club, which is funded of course by the US and to a lesser extent Japan. Countries and % of the budget; USA 22 % Japan 19.628 % Germany 9.493 % France 6.283 % United Kingdom 5.380 % Italy 4.922 % Canada 2.573 % Spain 2.448 % Brazil 1.702 % Netherlands 1.688 % Australia 1.604 % Korea, Republic of 1.318 % Russia 1.200 % Belgium 1.098 % Sweden 0.998 %

It is well known that the French have been funding US enemies for decades - including Iraq. This was after all, the reason why the French opposed the war - they would lose their investments. They are the No. 1 lenders to Iran and Cuba and past and present U.S. foes such as Somalia, Sudan and Vietnam. This type of financing is shared by Germany, France's partner. German banks are North Korea's biggest lenders, and Syria's -- and Libya's. But France is the most active. In Castro's sizzling gulag, French banks plunked down $549 million in the first trimester this year, a third of all credit to Cuba. The figure for Saddam's Iraq is $415 million. But these pale in comparison with the $2.5 billion that French banks have lent Iran. We could add to this list the U$300 million the EU pours into Arafat so he can buy weapons, use 17 year old girls and lace their bras with semtex to blow up pizzerias and of course pocket a few million for himself for being the great Egyptian born leader of Palestinian terror. And the world has to listen to France and Germany preach about 'power' and 'unipolarity' ? Please.

According to Riff and Raff, modern progress is evil. Lifting mankind out of the stone age was a curse. The Enlightenment a bother. The Industrial revolution immoral. The advances of science unneeded. Technology and innovation - beneath contempt. Riff and Raff would have us believe that snot nosed pimply faced bureaucrats would actually have created something as dynamic, open and innovative as the internet. Read the history of the internet, there is no way you could have replicated the breathtaking advances in communications technology in a government managed setup. When Arpanet [uS DoD] filtered into the private sector - the Inter-networking concept blossomed and became relevant. Apps appeared, browsers, protocols and business solutions. Innovation comes from opportunity, necessity and filling a need, not from Gestapo mandates and regulatory hooey emanating from central command. Keep the Riff Raff and socialists out of the innovation and technology area. I don't feel like going back to the Stone Age thank you.

Your article contained no facts or scientific evidence. It is clear if you read the thread [do you read any posts?], that there is no genetic rationale for homosexuality. No researchers can confirm it. Through peer review the genetic theory is dead - it failed. Read about ancient greece - thebes and sparta - tell me that the 'mens clubs' that were spawned there and the anti-femininst culture of the greeks [who feared if not hated women], were 'genetically' induced. Prove that these mens clubs where older men taught younger men about history, the arts, and war, in return for sexual favors, which helped create a bond between these men in a society constantly at war, was a genetically induced and naturally enforced set of behaviours. Prove that this society which accepted homosexuality as an integral part of making their society function better and as a bulwark against feminine wiles was genetically induced. Of course it wasn't. Get serious.